Ultima X: Odyssey Interview, Part 1

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An exchange with Senior Producer Rick Hall about Origin's online world project based on the Virtues of the Avatar

By Richard Aihoshi - 'Jonric'

Among the elements that helped the Ultima series to attain its position of honor in the history of electronic gaming, the foremost may be its incorporation of a philosophy or system of ethics based on eight characteristics collectively known as the Virtues. These are derived from three principles. Truth is a quality that is inherent in all things, Love the kindness and beauty that lie within our hearts, and Courage the inner spirit and determination that drive us to act for the greater good. From Truth comes Honesty, Love leads to Compassion and Courage to Valor. Truth and Love combined create Justice, Love and Courage produce Sacrifice, and Truth and Love engender Justice. All three together result in Spirituality. Pride, which is caused by the absence of the principles, is not a virtue, but it's opposite is Humility, which is.

Officially announced in late August of this year, Origin's Ultima X: Odyssey holds the promise of a return to this core aspect of the hallowed single-player RPG series, but within a persistent state environment wherein gamers will have the chance to create their own epic legacies by embodying the Virtues and ascending to the status of Avatars. As for some other notable features, there will be six playable races ranging from Humans to Elves, Gargoyles, Orcs, Pixies and hamster-like Phoda. The game's adventure system will encompass both quests and missions, with some taking place inside private areas. Combat is said to be fast-paced and strategic, with an intriguing twist being "intelligent" weapons that can level up and improve. Recently, we were provided the chance to question Senior Producer Rick Hall about these highlights and a whole lot more.

Jonric: To get us going, how is Ultima X: Odyssey related to the base property and timeline as a whole, and to Ultima Online in particular?

Rick Hall: The fiction for Ultima X: Odyssey picks up where Ultima IX left off. As you'll recall, at the end of Ultima IX, the Avatar ascended to become a godlike being, and merged with the Guardian. It was initially thought that they "cancelled each other out" and disappeared forever. But this is not the case. They took their struggle elsewhere, and have been battling for control of the single being they've become.

Unfortunately, the Avatar is losing in this conflict. In an effort to tip the scales in his favor, the Avatar has created a world called Alucinor, which is an amalgam of all of the places, creatures, and situations that he encountered in his journey to ascension. His idea is that if others can follow in his footsteps, then perhaps they too can ascend, and then aid him in his struggle against the Guardian.

Jonric: The title continues the sequence of the standalone games, the last of which was Ultima IX: Ascension. Why did you choose to name it in this manner instead of something more like Ultima Online II?

Rick Hall: As to why we chose the name Ultima X instead of UO2, well, aside from the fictional reasons, there were additional considerations. We wanted to make a clear distinction that UXO is not a sequel to Ultima Online. As I'm sure you're aware, UO recently celebrated its sixth birthday as well as reaching its highest subscriber total ever. It's still going strong, and we have lots of plans to continue to support it with updates and expansions for as long as players want to play the game.

Thus, when it came time to make a new game, we felt like there was no reason to provide the same experience as UO, especially since it's still going so strong. We wanted to do something different, with a completely different play experience. So, where UO is very focused on social interactions, UXO will be much more about fast-paced combat and adventuring.

We tend to refer to UXO as a sister product to UO, rather than a sequel. But since a name like UO2 very much implies a sequel, with similar play experience, the name just didn't fit what we were building. Hence, we decided to go with the name Ultima X: Odyssey

Jonric: With respect to your high-level design goals, and the types or balance of gameplay you're aiming to provide to what extent are you trying to do something different vs. drawing and building upon the strengths of UO?

Rick Hall: As just mentioned, we're not attempting to build upon the strengths of UO. The goal is to provide a new and fundamentally different kind of experience. While it's true that we feel we've gained a lot of valuable knowledge about MMPs with UO, we're absolutely not trying to recreate that experience. We're extrapolating it in order to make something different.

The main design goals of UXO are: 1) draw upon the Ultima fiction to a much greater degree than Ultima Online, 2) provide the players with an opportunity to role-play in a universe where they can truly feel heroic, 3) provide a solo player feel even though it's a massively multiplayer game, 4) keep the systems focused; i.e. rather than try to create a sprawling design that endeavors to do everything, we're trying to focus on the core experience and do every feature as deeply as possible, and 5) pay strong attention to production values such as graphics, music, and animation.

So for example, the combat system is much more interactive than the typical "sandwich combat" we tend to see in a lot of other MMPs today. Players won't be able to set their character in "war mode" and then head downstairs for a snack, only to return later and see if they won the fight. They will have to constantly make decisions, attack, defend, maneuver, execute combos and manage their resources in every encounter.